Moving from Darkness into the Light: Impact Investing in the Rural Electrification Ecosystem
Friday, March 30, 2012
Session Description
Location: Edmond Safra Lecture Theatre
Reliable access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa and India is critical in lifting people from poverty to prosperity. The gap between demand and supply of electricity in these regions provides real opportunities for investors to attain financial returns while creating platforms for additional broad positive social change. Panelists at this session will use real case studies to show how to invest in technological innovations addressing this gap, and will preview rapidly emerging new commercial and social benefit products and services designed to meet the needs of the world’s newest electricity consumers.
Time & Location
Time:
09:00 - 10:30, Friday, March 30, 2012
BST
Speakers
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Speaker
Global Head, Venture Capital, International Finance Corporation
Managing Partner for new climate technology fund. Www.BetterFuturenet.org
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Speaker
Director, Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Harris Mehos is a Director in the Structured Finance Group at OPIC where he is responsible for originating and underwriting long term capital facilities supporting private sector investments in projects throughout the developing world. Prior to joining OPIC in 2009, Harris had over twenty years of banking experience and most recently led Ambac Assurance’s Commercial Asset Backed Securities Group for ten years where he was a Managing Director.
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Speaker
Managing Director, Capricorn Investment Group
Dipender Saluja is Managing Partner of the Technology Impact Fund, Capricorn Investment Grp, an investment firm founded to demonstrate that it is possible to invest profitably while driving sustainable positive change. TIF is an early investor in iconic companies like Tesla, Redwood Materials, Planet, SpaceX, FORM & Helion. Prior to CIG, Dipender was Chief of Staff at Cadence, a global leader in electronic design, where he built & managed businesses that worked closely with electronics companies around the world. Prior to that he was at Data General (EMC), Honeywell, ROLM (IBM), & GFERC. He’s an electrical engineer by training & attended UND, Univ of Minnesota & Stanford. Dipender serves on the boards of AST, Electric Hydrogen, Halio, Joby (NYSE:JOBY), Navitas (NDAQ:NVTS), QuantumScape (NYSE:QS), Saildrone, SPAN & Summit Nanotech, International Solar Alliance, IonE, the Cyclotron Road Leadership Council, PRIME IAC, & commissioner of the Global Commission to End Energy Poverty (GCEEP).
